New Year, New Blog - Day 45

Day 45.

I slept quite well last night considering I put myself under a lot of stress. All I've thought about today has been flying and whether I can do it. There are lots of 'what ifs' at the moment. What if I agree to go and get to boarding the plane and chicken out? What if I go and something does go wrong on the plane? I have been looking at alternatives to flying to America. I've looked at getting a boat from Scotland or Denmark to Iceland, then to Greenland and then to Canada. Its something I'd consider doing if it means I can go and see family. Another option is getting a cruiseship from Southampton to New York and then a train to Michigan somehow. That costs about double the price of flying and takes about 8days longer than flying. Thats also something I'd do and be quite happy to pay for. Lots to think about and not long to get all the thinking done.

This morning I was at Simpson Autocare with Chris. I wasn't working on Penny the Peugeot today as we have done all we can until Chris works out the next move. It shouldn't be long now until she rules the road again. Today I helped Chris with Elvis the Escort. I think I shall name all the cars I help with from now on. I just did a bit of sanding as Elvis is a complete restoration job. Elvis is just the shell at the moment, no interior, no engine, no electrics. Just an empty frame of a car. It was nice not getting my hands greasy and doing something different. 

I got back about 2ish and after a shower I sat down to watch the 3rd Lord of the Rings films, The Return of the King. It lasted 242mins. A little over 4 hours long. It was an excellent film and I didn't notice how long it was. I also can't see how it could have been edited shorter for cinema and regular DVD release. I think I'll be adding them to my blu ray collection.

I was told once that I think too much and I have certainly been doing that lots recently, so off to bed I go.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 42

Day 42. 

The first day of half term, mums gone away for the weekend, Sam didn't have work so there was no excuse or reason for me to wake up early. 7.30am and I'm wide awake. A great start to the day. It did give me chance sort out my external hard drives and enjoy a lovely breakfast made by dad. 

My main 1 TB external hard drive, was acting weird and sluggish early on today and then decided that it wouldn't work altogether. So my afternoon has been dedicated to scrolling through forums, trying all sorts of fixes/paths/command promts and lots of other things to get my external hard drive working again. Everything I have tried so far hasn't worked but I will keep trying. This hard drive had everything on and WAS my backup. Films, music, tv shows, photos, university work, programs and software on it. Over 650GB worth, all unaccessable at the moment. I was getting slightly hacked off with it earlier. So annoyed infact that I put it outside in the cold for an hour! That didn't help matters though. I'll have a crack at it tomorrow.

It did stop obsessing over it for a couple of hours while I watched the 6 nations. England played away at Italy this afternoon. The strangest thing to see was the snow on the pitch. Most of the pitch was white, England were white and so was the ball. England could have used it to their advantage. Italy played incredible. They fought so hard and deserved to win the 1st half. They dominated possession and territory in the 1st half and should really have scored more points. Italy did have some very good passages of play and the forwards put up a good fight until Martin Castrogiovanni went off injured in the 33rd minute. He was overpowering in the scrum and was causing problems for England so it was a huge loss for Italy when he went off injured. The 2 tries in 2 minutes that Italy scored were vital for putting England under a lot of pressure for the 2nd half. England were far more dominant in the 2nd half and looked the much better team in attack. Italy had a great defence and credit where credit is due, it only got broken once by Charlie Hodgson charging down a ball which lead to a try. England were good at retaining the ball and shipping the ball wide. Making use of the whole back line was a huge positive from todays game. The new caps are gaining confidence and looking good with ball in hand. This England team will go far with Stuart Lancaster in charge. I wonder how the RFU will screw things up this time?

Dad, Samantha and I had pizza hut for dinner tonight. I can say that I will never eat pizza again. I am so full up. We had a hot one with jalapeno peppers on, a bbq chicken with cheesy bites crust and Sam had a cheese and pineapple stuffed crust. And now I'm hungry again but we have no pizza left.

I hope to get my hard drive working again tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes. 

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 41

Day 41. 

Half term is here! A week, without pesky kids annoying me, winding me up or making me aggy. Perfect!

Yesterday I told you that I had been at the Simpson Autocare in the evening and I left you all in limbo as to whether Penny the Peugeot started. She did not start. So a hammer was used and after some gentle pursuasion, she spluttered into life and roared! It was an amazing and satisfying feeling that Chris and I had done that. Penny sounded magnificant. She then decided to make a terrible knocking sound just like before with the old engine. My heart sank a bit but then she stopped making the knocking sound and then it started again. I'm hoping that it will be something simple but like everything else with my stupid car, it will be complicated and very expensive. There are some photos of the rebuilt engine and Penny in all her shining glory.

The rebuilt engine.

And again.

From another angle.

From the back.

Penny looking and feeling cold and miserable.

Everything in place and connected.

Just needs to be fired up....

 It just means I'll have to wait a little longer to be able to drive her. 

Todays discussion will take place tomorrow. I am not pressured by time tomorrow so I can get a lengthy discussion going. 

I hope everyone has had a good day.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 39

Day 39.

So I forgot to set my alarm last night and therefore didn't wake up when I should. I was woken up by mum banging on the wall. Oops. Todays walk to work was a little slipperier than yesterday but also more fun. I almost fell over a few times, thankfully I didn't.

With regards to the Spinal Tap issue of me not knowing if they were real or just for the movie, Jen helped me out. She informed me that they were made just for a TV show and then the film 'This Is Spinal Tap' but got quite popular and released albums and did some live shows. I might have to invest in some of their music as it was pretty good.

Work was easy today. With year 10 and 11 its just getting coursework finished and year 7, 8 and 9 were the normal lessons with lots of noise and an average amount of work being done. Nothing interesting happened except being called a legend by my year 9 class and reciting Anchor Man and Step Brothers quotes at lunch time. If Jen was there for that then it would have been pure awesome.
There was no rugby for year 7 after school today. I think the ground is still a little frozen as it still has snow on it. I'm quite happy about that as it was bloody freezing again!

Mark from work gave me a couple of hundred songs from Bacobens Rock Top 500. They are my type of songs and I'll name some of the artists from it. Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Derek and the Dominos, The Beatles, The Who, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Yes, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Lynard Synard and so many other classic artists. The music from artists like them is timeless, from the golden age of rock and without doubt, my favourite type of music. I have been listening to it since about 4pm and I'm not even halfway through the tracks. It could last a lifetime and I would still want to keep listening to it. Its that good.

Thats all for today. Nothing interesting has happened but I have enjoyed myself with the music.

Until tomorrow.

Jim.

New Year, New Blog - Day 38

Day 38.

A normal, quiet day for me. It was an easy day at work with very little to do, so tonights blog will very short. I think the only interesting thing that happened was walking Annabelle across the icey school car park. The car park was like an ice rink and I can't believe that it hasn't been cleared. With 100+ cars being driven in to park, one would think that there would be a safe place to park. Obviously its not that important.

When I got home, I watched This Is Spinal Tap. Its a mockumentary and I'm not sure if Spinal tap is a real band or just made up for the film. Can anyone help me? I think they are a fictional band but are a real band. I don't know. I really liked the film considering it was released in 1984 and it was quite funny. The story is they are promoting there new album in the U.S and its called 'Smell The Glove' but most of the gigs, concerts and venues they want to play at keep cancelling. I'd recommend it and would rate it quite highly at about 8/10.

I have found a new band I like listening to called Seether. What I have heard of their music so far I like. I can't say much more on that because I don't know anything else.

As I said, a normal day.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 28

Day 28.

A day of mixed emotions really. I was really excited to be working on Penny the Peugeot and putting her back together and getting her started. The first stop was a breakers yard at Temple Farm to get a fuel line for Penny. When Chris phone up he was assured they had the right one in the yard somewhere and would take it off for us. However, when we arrived to pick it up, we found out that it wasn't the right part so it would not fit. We tried other breakers yards but we had no luck. Once back at the workshop and the tea was made, Chris started to take the glow plugs out only to find that one had been snapped off inside the engine. This was not good news. I won't go into details about what was said from Chris over the phone to the place we got it from, but they were quite rude to him! He was told to ring back Monday to speak to their mechanic who will more than likely tell Chris to bring the engine back. So as for getting Penny started again, it didn't happen. Chris and I both have our fingers crossed as the dealer said they have another engine coming in on Tuesday.
All of these issues with the car were not something that could have been foreseen. Chris has done an amazing job so far and I know he will continue to do so. I wanted a bigish car for my first car and found one that I fell in love with. It just turns out that a little more work was needed than anticipated, and after a series of unfortunate events and minor setbacks, were nearly there. It just feels like 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards at the moment. But we will get there. So thank you Chris at Simpson Autocare.

Tonight I'm off for a few drinks in town with some friends and I hope it will ease the pain and suffering that is Penny the Peugeot. Of course I'm only joking, but I do hope it will be a good night.

Thanks to the everyone that got thinking about my question I posted yesterday. I had a few replies so thank you to those people. I have to think about having some way of replying to everyone.

I think that is all for tonight.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 27

Day 27.

Wow, another week over. It went quick for sure and I know Monday will come flying around. Oh well, such is life. I'm not going to include a diary today but go straight into a discussion. I'm thinking Fridays will be a discussion night, whereby I will talk about something and give my views on it. It can be quite difficult during the week so I think Friday nights will do for now. Last Friday I spoke about 'Playing God' and how bioengineers have created yeast that produce diesel and if it was the right thing to do. Seeing as I've been verey busy this week, I havn't been able to think properly about what I might like to talk about. But as I'm sitting here thinking, listening to music, the question is already there in the song title:

Whats this life for?

The song is called whats this life for and was from a band called Creed. The song is awesome to listen to and I have so many favourites but this is certainly up there with my all time favourites.

It might seem like a massive topic of debate and will not be settled in one night, but it would be really amazing to hear some comments and views. There are so many backgrounds and different views on life, whats its for, why are we here and is there something more. Maybe I'm a fool for asking what people think so early on in the year but I still want to know. From my background, upbringing, experiences and friends, I believe there is something more. I believe that I will go to heaven once my time here on Earth is done. Whether that place is in some far corner of the universe where no one can reach, a whole bunch of fluffy clouds with big golden gates or something beyond our imagination, beyond our comprehension and beyond our expectations, I don't know. What I do know and believe is that there is something better and perfect after this life. Sometimes I do question it all and think, what if this is it, just this one life and then nothing. Then something or someone always reminds me that there is more than this. Maybe you don't agree with me which is you own opinion and decision, because the world would be a boring place if everyone was the same and it opens up a massive discussion.

Scientists will argue that we are here through billions of years of evolution.

Christians believe that we are here because of Gods love.

Other religions will argue that they are here through their Gods doing.

Atheists couldn't give a banana.

Everyone else is either open minded and willing to listen or closed minded and not willing to listen.

I think I'll leave it there for tonight and post a question on facebook and twitter. As this is a massive topic I will certainly be coming back to it. Please facebook me messages of direct message me on twitter with your views. I would love to hear them.

Maybe it could be a discussion you could have with your friends and collegues?

Next weeks question will probably lead on from this.

Until tomorrow.

Jim